Tag Archives: Pacific herring

The state has released its forecast for the 2018 Togiak herring fishery. The total forecasted biomass of 136,756 tons of Pacific herring will allow a combined purse seine and gill net harvest of 24,042 tons for the Togiak District Sac Roe Fishery. That biomass is up slightly from 2017’s forecast—130,852 tons. “Pretty much as I expected,” said Bristol Bay area research biologist Greg Buck said about the 2018 forecast. “Maybe a little small and a little older than I would have predicted, but totally in the ballpark. So I expect a fairly normal run.” click here to read the story 20:04

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is drafting its 2018 management plan for Pacific herring and looking for the public’s thoughts. DFO herring resource manager Roger Kanno said the federal fisheries agency is preparing its integrated fisheries plan for the herring, which be available for the public to read and comment on in December. A food and bait herring fishery, the smallest of DFO’s four herring fisheries, is currently open in the Strait of Georgia at Pacific Fisheries Management area 15, the part of the strait around the upper Sunshine Coast, although the main harvesting is happening near Hornby Island and Campbell River. click here to read the story 14:56

The annual report detailing national and regional economic impacts of U.S. fisheries totaled $9.6 billion in value in 2016 with Alaska as usual producing more than the rest of the nation combined. Alaska produced 58 percent of all landings and for the 20th straight year brought in the highest volume, according to the 2016 Fisheries of the United States report by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The top spot for all ports in the nation went to Dutch Harbor, which brought in 770 million pounds with Alaska pollock accounting for 89 percent of that volume. click here to read the story 16:43

A wise investor plays the financial market by maintaining a variety of stocks. In the long run, the whole portfolio will be more stable because of the diversity of the investments it contains. It’s this mindset that resource managers should adopt when considering Pacific herring, one of the most ecologically significant fish in Puget Sound and along the entire West Coast, argue the authors of a paper appearing in the January 2016 print edition of the journal Oecologia. Just like a financial portfolio contains shares from different companies, the diverse subpopulations of herring from different bays and beaches around Puget Sound collectively keep the total population more stable, the study’s authors found. Read the article here 18:17

In January, Nate Lee and his daughter Maya threw circular cast nets from the Ferry Point pier in Richmond and caught about sixty pounds of . Several dozen other fishermen were fishing with similar gear, all filling buckets and coolers with the six-inch fish. But for Lee, Chin, and hundreds of small-scale recreational fishermen in the Bay Area, the rules may soon be changing. Currently, there is no limit on how many herring that recreational anglers can catch. And commercial fishermen want fishery managers to cinch down on what they see as growing competition for — and possibly a threat to — the same resource. Oceana’s Geoff Shester weighs in. Read the rest here 09:29

While the Pacific herring are one of the most abundant fish in B.C.’s coastal waters, many communities have suffered a decrease in stock suspected from overfishing. The main controversies lay on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, around Haida Gwaii and on the central coast where First Nations and various scientists fear the herring are in a fragile state despite the federal government’s decision to reopen herring fisheries. Though herring stocks are struggling to recover in neighbouring waters, here in Parksville Qualicum Beach we’re seeing record highs. Read the rest here

As locals prepare to celebrate the humble herring, a dispute over prices of the omega-3 rich silvery fish has organizers of the Sausalito Herring Festival wondering if the guests of honor will even show up. Mel Wickliffee of Pier 45 Seafood said the price disagreement is keeping out-of-state fishermen on the sideline. He said the fish company unloads the herring for another company and has nothing to do with the price. Read the rest here 10:21

In the past, boats from ports all along the coast participated, with commercial fishermen snaring herring in gill nets, recreational fishermen using throw nets, and others floating racks of kelp or seaweed on which the 9-inch fish can deposit their eggs. This year, a poor market for herring roe threatens to keep many fishermen on the sidelines. Read the rest here 16:24

Sea lions, porpoises and tens of thousands of birds are jockeying for position with fishermen this week as the annual herring run splashes into San Francisco Bay, a spectacular marine wildlife showcase that conservationists say is one of the largest in North America. Read [email protected] 12:03

“I’ve been seeing herring with bleeding fins,” Ms. Morton said Monday. “Two days ago I did a beach seine on Malcolm Island [near Port McNeill on northern Vancouver Island] and I got approximately 100 of these little herring and they were not only bleeding from their fins, but their bellies, their chins, their eyeballs. These are very, very strong disease symptoms.” [email protected]

SitNews – Currently Pacific herring are acknowledged as a keystone forage fish species that is responsible for maintaining the health of the marine ecosystem in the waters of California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia (BC). As you cross the maritime boundary between BC and Alaska herring lose their forage fish status and become just another commercially harvested finfish. continued

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

In a slap in the face to fishermen, Tribes, environmental justice advocates, conservationists and family farmers, President Obama on December 16 signed the Water Infrastructure Improvements Read More »